ACRE

Tuesday 5/5, Wednesday, 5/6, Thursday 5/7,
Tuesday, 6/2, Wednesday 6/3

All sessions are On Site from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
10270 Old Columbia Road, #100 Columbia, MD 21046

Registration Fee: $500 Per Registrant

All registrants will receive access to the course materials
one week prior to the first ACRE training session

To receive a certificate an “ACRE Certificate of
Achievement”, participants must attend all 5 sessions (40 hours of training) and
successfully complete all activities and field-based assignments.

Several field assignments include leading an
employment seeker at your organization through the employment process as taught
in class.

Session 1 (5/5)

Application of Core Values and Principles of Practice

This session focuses on the history, core values, and
principles of Supported Employment. This includes the rights and
responsibilities of people receiving services, ethical guidelines, and
philosophy of community employment, as well as disability legislation, funding,
regulations, and policies impacting people with disabilities.

Session 2-3 (5/6, 5/7)

Assessment & Career Planning

This 2-day session focuses on
individualized assessment and employment/career planning. Discovery is
introduced as the foundation
of career planning and participants
will learn how to design and implement a discovery process for employment
seekers. This includes learning how to gather information about the employment
seeker (skills, interests, community connections, conditions for success) while
encouraging the employment seeker’s active participation and decision-making
throughout the career planning process.
Participants will have an opportunity to complete each step
of the discovery process with an employment seeker, learn how to facilitate a
customized employment planning meeting, and develop a vocational profile.
Trainees will learn the basics of self-employment/entrepreneurship, the impact
of wages on disability benefits, the availability of work incentives, and how
to make referrals to other agencies for assistance.

Session 4: (6/2)

Community Research & Job Development

This session provides an overview of customized employment
and uses the information obtained about the employment seeker during the
discovery process to create a Job Development plan. Participants will learn how
to develop relationships with businesses, assist employment seekers with the
job search process, develop employment proposals, understand LEAN process
improvement, and negotiate a win-win job match based on the employment seeker’s
ideal conditions of employment and the needs of a business.

Participants will have an opportunity to complete each step
of the job development process with an employment seeker.

Session 5: (6/3)

Workplace & Related Supports

This session focuses on developing workplace supports with
an overview of systematic instruction. Participants will learn how to do an
effective job analysis, and implement job training, fading plans, and
strategies for developing comprehensive workplace supports.

Participants will learn creative strategies to ensure the
employee enters the job in the most inclusive manner possible and help them to
maximize their job performance and meet the expectations of the workplace.

Facilitator: Kevin Walker has
over 31
years of experience with Penn-Mar Human Services, and served in various direct
support, managerial, and administrative ​roles before becoming the Director of
Business Development. Kevin spearheaded Penn-Mar’s Employment 1st initiative in
2009, and for the past 8 years has provided training and technical assistance
to like-minded provider organizations
. In July of 2020, Kevin assisted with
the development and launch of Penn-Mar’s consulting division.

Kevin is a Certified Workforce Incentives Practitioner and
a 2020 graduate of Leadership Baltimore County. He is a

certified
ACRE trainer and led in the development of a Penn-Mar
centric ACRE endorsed curriculum.
Kevin has been involved in ACRE
projects in California, District of Columbia, Maryland, Minnesota, and
Oklahoma, and is also a curriculum reviewer for ACRE.

Kevin serves as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the U.S. Department of
Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy on the National Expansion of
Employment Opportunities Network (NEON) project and has provided training and
technical assistance to providers in Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Washington, for NEON.

Facilitator: Tricia Zeltwanger
has been employed with Penn-Mar Human Services since 1991. Tricia held the position of
Contract Manager until 2012 when she took the position as a Job Developer.
Tricia’s vital role is to connect with our community through networking and
developing employer partnerships. Tricia is a 2014 graduate of Leadership York.
She created the York Business Networking Group and has served as its President
since 2015. Tricia is an Ambassador for the York County Economic Alliance and
serves on the Board of Southern York County Business Association.

Tricia trains Penn-Mar new hires on Customized Employment and is
passionate about the needs and goals of each employment seeker.

Tricia has demonstrated a high level of success in placing many
employment seekers in community employment.

*DDA ACRE Reimbursement*

The DDA has been committed to
assisting service providers during these transition years leading up to the
full implementation of the LTSS
Maryland-
DDA Module system and new
employment services rates by reimbursing providers for the DDA-approved
employment training program or certification competency test.
For any staff that a current and approved provider pays for and sends to
a DDA approved employment training program or certification competency test
until Employment Services become effective or a provider is fully billing the
fee for services in LTSS Maryland-
DDA Module, the DDA will reimburse the
provider for the associated fees.

Providers will need to invoice DDA with the following information and
submit to your Regional Directors:

• Name and title of the employee
• Name of the provider organization
• Date(s) and location of the training
• Name of the training and training provider
• Supporting documentation that the employee has completed the course successfully
• For reimbursement of fees for the Certified Employment Support Professional (CESP)
exam through the Association of People Supporting
Employment
First (APSE), provide supporting documentation that the employee has passed the
exam.

• Training fees

Please remember that anyone delivering
Discovery, Job Development and Self-Employment Development supports after
Employment Services are effective must have proof of competency in the best
practices of Customized Employment as evidenced by completing and passing the
Certified Employment Support Professional exam through the Association of
People Supporting Employment First (APSE). The cost of both the ACRE training
and the CESP exam is reimbursable by DDA until the new Employment Services
rates become effective or the provider is fully billing in LTSS Maryland
-DDA